It's true that George H.W. Bush was the last president from The Greatest Generation. This week, commentators have pointed out that when Bill Clinton defeated Bush for a second term, Clinton's youth was a big plus.

For weeks if not months, there is media and coffee club speculation about the hearts and minds of American voters. Then election day comes, and we find out. The answer in Mississippi was, "We're pretty much where we were two years ago, four years ago, six years ago ..."

Newspapers are businesses like no other. While other employers contribute to community life, newspapers, when operating at their best, are centers for community conversation and drive the quality of community life.

Long before there was a mutiny aboard H.M.S. Bounty, it was clear Capt. Bligh was unfit. As tensions built, the choice for his officers and crew became increasingly clear: (1) tough it out or (2) risk being hanged for deciding enough was enough.

Jean-Baptiste Colbert was finance minister for French monarch Louis XIV. His best quote: "The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing."